Slack /(?)/

Slack

Lax; not tense; not hard drawn; not firmly extended; as, a slack rope.
Weak; not holding fast; as, a slack hand.
Remiss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness.
— 2 Pet. iii. 9.
Not violent, rapid, or pressing; slow; moderate; easy; as, business is slack.
Csar . . . about sunset, hoisting sail with a slack southwest, at midnight was becalmed.
— Milton.

Slack in stays: slow in going about, as a ship.
Slack water: the time when the tide runs slowly, or the water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide.
Slack-water navigation: navigation in a stream the depth of which has been increased, and the current diminished, by a dam or dams.

adv.

The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon it; as, the slack of a rope or of a sail.

v. i.

imp. & p. p. Slacked; p. pr. & vb. n. Slacking

To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry weather.
To be remiss or backward; to be negligent.
To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake; as, lime slacks.
To abate; to become less violent.
Whence these raging fires Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.
— Milton.
To lose rapidity; to become more slow; as, a current of water slackens.
To languish; to fail; to flag.
To end; to cease; to desist; to slake. [Obs.]
That through your death your lineage should slack.
— Chaucer.

They will not of that firste purpose slack.
— Chaucer.

v. t.

To render slack; to make less tense or firm; as, to slack a rope; to slacken a bandage.
To neglect; to be remiss in. [Obs.]
Slack not the pressage.
— Dryden.
To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake; as, to slack lime.
To cause to become less eager; to repress; to make slow or less rapid; to retard; as, to slacken pursuit; to slacken industry.
I should be grieved, young prince, to think my presence Unbent your thoughts, and slackened 'em to arms.
— Addison.

In this business of growing rich, poor men should slack their pace.
— South.

With such delay Well plased, they slack their course.
— Milton.
To cause to become less intense; to mitigate; to abate; to ease.
To respite, or deceive, or slack thy pain Of this ill mansion.
— Milton.

Air-slacked lime: lime slacked by exposure to the air, in consequence of the absorption of carton dioxide and water, by which it is converted into carbonate of lime and hydrate of lime.